Eric Schneiderman to Chair President Obama’s Mortgage Crisis Unit

At last night’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced that he would form a new task force to investigate frauds involving home loans and mortgage-backed securities. Chairing the new effort, President Obama announced, would be none other than New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has challenged the White House’s foreclosure policies in the past.

“The goal of this joint investigation will be threefold: to hold accountable any institutions that violated the law; to compensate victims and help provide relief for homeowners struggling from the collapse of the housing market, caused in part by this wrongdoing; and to help us finally turn the page on this destructive period in our nation’s history,” said a White House document obtained by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, who first reported the news.